Construction of a Safe and Friendly Workplace Environment
1. Advocacy on Gender Equality in Employment
The number of employees in STSP has reached 92,300 by the end of 2023, including 58,044 males and 34,256 females, with the ratio of male to female at about 6:4. To promote gender equality at work and establish a more stable working conditions and environment, the park manufacturers' knowledge and understanding of the Act of Gender Equality in Employment and the prohibition of employment discrimination are strengthened. In addition to making gender equality promotion short films, STSP Bureau also organized workshops inviting professionals to have lectures on the Act of Gender Equality in Employment and Case Study of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace and Employment Discrimination. These workshops can be useful for HR personnel to handle related issues in the future. The publicity was also strengthened in large-scale events with promotional posters and publicity materials provided. Business units were also encouraged to actively participate in publicity briefings to further assist them to build a friendly workplace and facilitate labor-management harmony.
(1) Relevant propaganda and materials about gender equality in employment and a friendly workplace are posted on Facebook Fanpage and published in the Southern Taiwan Science Park Newsletter.
(2) Materials are made for the promotion of gender equality cases to provide HR staff in the science park with materials for law propaganda targeting at labors and basic-level management for them to abide by the laws and regulations. In 2023, 8 sessions of playing the propaganda short film on gender equality before the movies were arranged on STSP Movie Night, and the contents of the short film included parental leave without pay, childcare allowance and CEDAW promotion to strengthen the promotion of the gender equality concept.
(3) In 2023, the Cheering Station for Gender Equality in Employment was established in 2 sessions of large-scale events (1/14, 3/18), and questionnaire was designed to interact with the public on the spot, coupled with explanations of laws and regulations concerning gender equality in employment and employment discrimination (approximately 400 copies of questionnaire were completed in total).
(4) Movies on gender equality issues were played in the Nanke Cinema. Self-made film promotion posters were used to help the public eliminate the gender stereotypes. In 2023, there were two sessions of the movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once".
(5) Organized 2 sessions of Workplace Equality and Sexual Harassment Prevention Seminar, on September 12 and July 10 in Tainan Science Park and Kaohsiung Science Park respectively. In addition, the briefing session for Gender Equality in Employment Act and Sexual Harassment Prevention Act was organized on December 13, and representatives from 140 manufacturers participated in this briefing, with a total of 160 attendees. During the briefing session, lawyers were invited to lecture on relevant laws and prevention of sexual harassment through practical case analysis, aiming to enhance the professional knowledge of business personnel and promote workplace equality.
Promotion of Recognition of Workplace Equality in the Science Park
To safeguard labor rights, promote a friendly working environment, facilitate harmony between labor and management to reduce labor disputes, and to commend park employees for their contribution to the construction and economic development of STSP, the Bureau organizes the Award-Giving for Promotion of Work Equality in the Workplace for excellent business units and Excellent Employees in Southern Taiwan Science Park to encourage enterprises to actively implement labor laws and regulations and construct a harmonious working environment.
A grand commendation ceremony and music tribute was held on May 6, 2023. A total of 6 manufacturers won the "Excellent business unit for promoting workplace equality" and 61 employees won the "Excellent employees in STSP" in 2023.
Gender Discrimination Cases
To provide legal assistance for employees or job seekers who are in gender equality lawsuits, the STSP Bureau has set a fund of NTD 50,000 for legal assistance in gender equality lawsuits and set up a review team for legal assistance of gender equality cases. The committee is composed of 7 committee members, with 4 female and 3 male representatives, including 4 external experts, and is in charge of reviewing relevant subsidies of lawsuits. There was no application for the fund in 2023.
In 2023, the Bureau convened 3 sessions of Gender Employment Equality and Employment Discrimination Review Committee to discuss issues concerning Act of Gender Equality in Employment, discrimination cases violating Employment Service Act and complaints of sexual harassment in the workplace as well as relief channels to safeguard the rights and interests of the complainants. Among them, the reviewing process of 3 cases of sexual harassment in the workplace, 1 case of sexual harassment at a workplace, 1 case of gender discrimination and 1 case of employment discrimination filed by individuals were completed to safeguard the rights of the complainant to promote a friendly workplace and environment in the science park.
2. Family Care and Support
The establishment of the childcare facilities is conducted in accordance with the amended Act for Establishment and Administration of Science Parks. It is open to childcare institutions outside the science park to establish appropriate childcare facilities in the science park. The STSP Bureau provides the venue for rent at preferential rates for the childcare facilities to enable the employees to arrange childcare so that they can concentrate on their work while working, achieving a balance between work and the family.
The STSPB also provides counseling for the park business units to provide childcare measures and breastfeeding rooms to implement a friendly workplace. A total of 34 park manufacturers received the counseling in 2023. In addition, subsidies for childcare facilities and measures are also budgeted every year to assist business units to handle these measures, encouraging them to create a safe workplace and family life for the workers.
High-quality education and childcare setting the employees' mind at peace
To create a friendly working environment in the park, Tainan Science Park and Kaohsiung Science Park have set the Little Bear Baby Care Center specially designated for the growth and learning of 0-2-year-old babies. In 2022, with the provision of friendly preschool education services as the starting point, it is expected to further provide parents with kindergarten childcare services for children aged 2-6 years old. The parents will pay NT$2,000 for 1 child per month, NT$1,000 for the second, and free of charge for the third child or above or children from low-income families. Extended childcare services are also provided to reduce the burden of parental childcare.
Currently, there are 8 childcare facilities, including 1 public and 2 private baby care centers, 1 private kindergarten, 2 manufacturer-operated kindergartens, and 2 commissioned non-profit kindergartens in the science park areas, with the enrollment rate reaching 90%. Among them, the STSP Non-Profit Preschool at Lianyuan participated in the "2023 workplace childcare facility competition within the public sector" organized by the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration and won the "Outstanding Award" in the Kindergarten Group among 37 agencies (institutions).
3. A Safe and Healthy Park
The STSP Bureau is devoted to creating a safe and healthy science park and developing high-quality labor force to enhance the employees' attention to and efforts for a safe and healthy working environment in the workplace. In terms of the occupational safety and health, STSP Bureau focuses on creating a sustainable working environment of a healthy and safe smart park.
Increase health care penetration rate
The Employee Clinic of Southern Taiwan Science Park is the first medical service team from private medical center to be introduced among government-developed industrial zone and science parks, providing medical services and health consultation for employees of park manufacturers and the neighboring residents. The Employee Clinic of Southern Taiwan Science Park provides timely professional consultation and epidemic prevention guidance for park manufacturers from pulmonary tuberculosis in the past, to SARS, H1N1, H5N1 and even to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides a full range of medical services, successfully playing the role of family physician in the big family of STSP.
The firstly established workplace ecosystem in the health park combines the strengthening of workplace safety and health of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of Ministry of Labor, the Healthy Workplace Certification of the Health Promotion Administration of Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Sports Enterprise Certification of the Sports Administration of Ministry of Education. In 2018, the "Health Park, The First Year of Sports" was promoted to establish a healthy workplace ecosystem in the science park. We invited Tai Tzu-Ying as the spokesperson from the year 2018 to 2023 and organized neighborly ball games and night runs to create a healthy and sporty atmosphere at STSP.
In addition, according to the statistics of the Labor Health and Protection Management Reporting Information System (as of the end of December, 2023), the overall health service rate of the science parks within STSP has reached 100% (the number of manufacturers that should employ or contract medical personnel was 113 to serve a total of 86,403 employees. Among them, 113 manufacturers completed system filing, serving 86,403 employees. The service rate was 86,403/86,403 = 100%).
Improvement of the Safety of Working Environment through On-site Counseling
The STSP Bureau has been devoted to the disaster prevention and relief work through actively counseling and on-site inspection of the park manufacturers, which will effectively reduce the occurrence of occupational disasters and will be of great help in the protection of the life, safety and health of the employees in the science park.
The more business units stationed in the park, the more plants are built. STSP Bureau has integrated resources from industry, academia, and government to establish an industrial safety guidance group to promote "on-site counseling on workplace safety and health", targeting at the construction firms and manufacturers in the park, and high-risk places with high frequency of occupational accidents in the park, Category A and C workplaces, and construction projects in the entire region. In addition, the STSP Safety and Health Guidance Group has been established in accordance with Article 22 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The members of this group include doctors from park clinics, senior nurses from park manufacturers, and experts in the academia to provide on-site counseling on the management and protection of workers' physical and mental health in the manufacturing and construction industries in the park, and assist high-risk places to implement autonomous management of occupational safety and health to reduce the occurrence of occupational accidents.
A total of 3 sessions of propaganda meetings were held, focusing on not only the explanation of the key points of on-site counseling but also tower crane safety standards and temporary electrical safety that are prone to hazards in construction sites, manufacturing local exhaust design regulations and outlines, and illegal infringement prevention in the workplace.
It is hoped that through the comprehensive propaganda meetings, the quality of the business units and the employees in the science park can be enhanced, their self-health management can be improved and the occupational accidents in the science park can be reduced, reaching a win-win-win situation.
Excellent Industrial Safety Unit (Personnel) Award
The STSP Bureau promotes occupational safety and health in the science park through advocacy, guidance, and implementation of labor inspections to effectively improve the safety and health standards in the science park. Through the pre-assessment mechanism, the business units' self-management can be enhanced and the full participation mechanism can be expanded to promote the efficiency of the labor health and labor inspection so as to construct a safe, healthy and humanized working environment. To publicly commend the business units and employees with excellent occupational safety and health management to encourage the improvement of workplace safety standards and promote labor health and safety so as to carry forward the diligent and sociable spirit and the excellent tradition of moral character, we commend excellent employees and business units every year. In 2023, 4 manufacturers and 10 employees in the science park won the award.
We have been devoted to the promotion of various disaster reduction plans and investigations to have thorough grasp of the high-risk places in the science park and advocate the importance of occupational disease prevention. To ensure the occupational safety of the workers, we further help the construction sites implement the establishment of self-management, which effectively reduces the potential disasters in the park while on the other hand improves the industrial safety standards in the science park.
In 2023, a total of 1,122 labor inspections were completed (including 1,025 sessions of occupational safety and health inspections and 97 sessions of labor condition inspections). The occupational disaster rate per thousand people in the science park in 2023 was 1.64‰.
In 2023, there were accidents where an object collapsed and the worker was crushed, and accidents where workers were hit and fell in the park. STSP Bureau dispatched personnel to the site for labor inspection and demanded that the work be suspended in accordance with the emergency response procedures for major disaster accidents in the park, followed by relevant procedures for notification of workplace disaster and related investigation and punishment in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Business units were also advised to strengthen works for occupational safety and health protection as well as management of various operations.
1. Analysis of the causes of accidents
2. Follow-up improvement measures
(1) Collect and prepare information of the disaster cases in the park and strengthen the key points in labor inspections and publicity meetings for relevant business units to prevent similar accidents from happening again.
(2) Regularly arrange experts and scholars to assist in occupational safety and health inspections of the park factories and construction projects and strengthen the guidance for manufacturers that had occupational accidents for improvement, such as planning the traffic flow and guiding the personnel, adding a rear-view camera to the forklift to assist with the drivers' visual blind spots.
4. Maintaining the death rate per million workers in major occupational disasters at 20 and lower (reaching Japanese standards)
To enhance the workers' occupational safety and health knowledge and the ability to identify hazards, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of Ministry of Labor and STSP Bureau jointly promote the "Occupational Safety and Health Multi-somatosensory Extended Reality (XR) Disaster Prevention Simulation Training Field Project". On April 14, 2023, witnessed by the Deputy Minister of Ministry of Labor and the Minister of National Science and Technology Council, a declaration to promote collaboration was jointly signed. The existing buildings of Kaohsiung temporary storage site was used and refurbished, and it took 3 years to build the first-class Disaster Prevention Simulation Training. With the utilization of advanced technology to simulate various high-risk operations, the trainees can receive the interactive and immersive training in a safe environment, with the expectation that trainees can work safely in their workplace after the training.
In the training field, MR, VR, and AR technologies, coupled with the AI intelligent recognition system equipment familiarize trainees with standard operating procedures. If the safety measures are not implemented perfectly, corresponding occupational accidents will occur. Through the simulation of sensory experience of occupational accidents, safety awareness can be strengthened. In 2023, the establishment of electromagnetic induction operation for electrical hazard, mobile crane operations, confined space work, chemical spraying operations, open excavation operations, scaffolding and roof work, and machinery operation was conducted. We also looked into the types and media of domestic industrial safety incidents and selected and analyzed cases of occupational accidents with high severity and frequency for the compilation of training materials. After designing and comprehensive review of safety accident simulation courses, we provided 8 occupational accident simulation training courses in total, and combined with the dynamic equipment built in the field, the trainees can deeply experience the potential dangers in the workplace.
5. Advanced Disaster Education and Training Center
A total of 61 sessions of education and training were organized in 2023, and the cumulative number of trainees was 1,681. There were 74 sessions of labor visit experiences, and the number of trainees totaled 1,873, with a cumulative of 3,554 trainees. There were 18 sessions of visits from schools and government agencies, with a total of 437 visitors. As for the occupational accident simulation training course, in addition to the review of industrial accidents, 7 sets of digital teaching materials were developed. Different from traditional digital materials that solely feature video and audio instructional content, the content of the simulation training we developed integrates interactive games to add joy in the learning process, aiming to achieve effective learning through educational entertainment.
In addition, the establishment of the Virtual exhibition hall entrance of XR CENTER provides trainees with the experience of visiting the XR CENTER site through internet connections. Trainees can use different devices, including cell phones, tablets, and computers to enter the XR CENTER Virtual Exhibition Hall to create their own virtual avatars to interact with other trainees online or operate various simulation training systems.